Death Cults of Malta, etc.
Feb. 2nd, 2005 10:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kent_allard_jrOne strong recommendation: This month's Scientific American, devoted to lost civilizations. There are articles on the Harrapan civilization (that's what got my attention, naturally), on Çatalhöyük, on the San of Southern Africa, on Great Zimbabwe and a number of others. Well worth checking out.
One article that impressed me was "Death Cults of Prehistoric Malta," a look at the Neolithic burial sites and temples on the island. The authors found many obese "Venus" statues, which of course were common throughout the stone-age Mediterranean, but they also found statues of obese men as well. They also argued that the figures did not appear to be related to fertility in any significant way. I don't know enough archeology (or enough about the stone-age Maltese) to evaluate these claims, but they were thought-provoking, anyway.
One possibility that occurred to me: Maybe these figures were part of an ancestor cult? These revered ancestors were living an idyllic afterlife, where they didn't have to work and food was just sitting there waiting to be plucked. They were fat and happy. (Kind of like an alternative US where you never had to go the office.) I don't know if there's any truth to this, though.
One article that impressed me was "Death Cults of Prehistoric Malta," a look at the Neolithic burial sites and temples on the island. The authors found many obese "Venus" statues, which of course were common throughout the stone-age Mediterranean, but they also found statues of obese men as well. They also argued that the figures did not appear to be related to fertility in any significant way. I don't know enough archeology (or enough about the stone-age Maltese) to evaluate these claims, but they were thought-provoking, anyway.
One possibility that occurred to me: Maybe these figures were part of an ancestor cult? These revered ancestors were living an idyllic afterlife, where they didn't have to work and food was just sitting there waiting to be plucked. They were fat and happy. (Kind of like an alternative US where you never had to go the office.) I don't know if there's any truth to this, though.
